A series of newsletters in the name of GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul contain several racist remarks — including one that says order was restored to Los Angeles after the 1992 riots when blacks went “to pick up their welfare checks.”

The letter, along with a number of other questionable articles Paul mailed out in the late 80’s and early 90’s, doesn’t cite who the author was, and Paul denies ever having read the articles in question.

Another says, “The criminals who terrorize our cities — in riots and on every non-riot day — are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to ‘fight the power,’ to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible.”

Only time will tell if Paul’s large following will stick with him if he pursues an anticipated independent Presidential run.

No question Ron Paul is a racist. But he defended himself on CNN by saying his constituents kept voting for him, because, see, he’s a libertarian and not racist. He judges the individual. He conveniently forgot to mention that where he comes from in Texas, being racist gets you elected. It doesn’t work so well on a national level, though.

I just hope all the supporters of him who like him for the single issue of the war on drugs would STFU now.

LMFAO at you idiots that will bite hook line and sinker for the con being passed off as fact by the same propaganda machine that tells you that debt is good,that our government would not lie,that the response to hurricane Katrina and Rita were “accidentally” under estimated,or that the gas prices are not rigged for the benefit of the oil companies.It is past time to wake the f*** up and realize that the powers in place will do anything to keep us at each others throats by way of ethnic,social,or religous hyperbole so that we only react instead of reasoning.WAKE UP!!!

He’s CLEARLY not a racist. This is an old story and he debunked it months ago when it first broke. Now the mainstream media has finally picked it up and have unleashed the smear machine. He did not write the newsletters, and anyone familiar with RP’s writing from the last 30 years would recognize that instantly. His libertarian principles he adheres to and has for his entire political career make him anti-racist because what matters to him is the individual not the collective. Tell me if you can find any hints of racism, certainly of the caliber as that found in the newsletters, in any of his writings, speeches, or congressional debates.

Believe what you wish, but I’ve invested a lot of time studying Ron Paul’s writings and the newsletters are in complete contradiction the everything this honest man has ever stated, and thus when he says he didn’t write it I without a doubt believe it.

Oh well, although he has many supporters who are passionate and although he’s the only candidate in my eyes who speaks with a sense of logic and reason like that of which I’ve never heard from a politician, I don’t think the majority of American’s can see past the most surface stories that the mass media feeds them and thus I await what will likely be a very uncertain future. Enjoy your recession, it’s going to be a lot easier than we we fall into a real depression.

Honestly, the only thing that should matter at all right now is economic policy…

“87% of Ron Paul supporters are balding white males over 45 who never had a girlfriend before.”

At 27 years old I’ve got a full head of lustrous black hair that complements my half-Venezuelan skin very nicely and my half-Pakistani girlfriend very much enjoys running her hands through it. I’m a mass transit advocate, blogger, self-employed, Downtown LA dweller, and a full-on Ron Paul supporter.

funny.. the quickest way to discredit someone in this country is to call them a racist. so no surprise as he gains more support that the mainstream media plays up this false hood that has been debunked.

I’d have dismissed these newsletter findings as a smear campaign, or maybe as just one racist article put out by a rogue writer or maybe even Paul himself in a grumpy mood, but there are a number of similar writing made over time.

I agree this doesn’t sound like the Ron Paul I’ve heard at debates of late, who seems pretty reasoned, BUT, like I said, there were a number of newletters that he put out that fit this language.

BTW, I think the Militant would say you’re part of the other 13%, you sexy MetroRider you.

Well, I read his statements on racism at his campaign site, and thought he was racist. His thesis is that racism is caused by a collectivist attitude combined with government enforcement. He specifically blames affirmative action. That’s not what’s racist, however.

What *is* racist is his omission of the two most egregious, widespread, and mundane recent uses of government power to create and enforce racism: segregation, and enforcement of racial “CC&R”s in housing developments.

In public statements, he praises MLK, omitting the fact that MLK was backed up by federal power against states. Also, he ignores that MLK was fighting against segregation, and CC&Rs, and other forms of legal, government empowered racism.

“BTW, I think the Militant would say you’re part of the other 13%, you sexy MetroRider you.”

LOL. My response was a little funny, but I just think there’s a bit of misconception (mostly due to the media’s reporting) that RP supporters are a bunch of weirdos, but many of my peers are supporters and most others I’ve met who are interested in his campaign all seem to be amazingly normal. I just think the Militant’s description of RP supporters, although humorous, is off-base especially when you think of all the young people (probably his largest support base is college students) who rally behind the man.

As for the newsletters, I admit the content certainly is strange and the fact that they were written in a newsletter with RP’s name is certainly regrettable, but he apologized and admitted he was morally responsible (although not directly responsible, he says he had no knowledge of the overtly racist content) back in 1999.

What’s more, a defining feature of RP’s run so far and his career as I have followed it has been his unwavering willingness to spout his honest opinion on any matter even no matter what the audience or how unpopular that opinion might be. This is the guy will tell a group of liberal college kids that he wants to repeal Roe v. Wade and end the welfare state while at the same time he’ll go in front of a group of evangelicals and say that gays have the right to get married just as much as anybody else and that all drugs should be legalized. He stands among the warmongering wolves at Republican debates and calls the war against the “islamo-facists” in the middle east absurd and immoral even though he knows he will receive pompous snickers and wise-cracks from his opponents and boo’s from the neo-cons in the crowd. All this leads me to believe that if Ron Paul was racist and had a racist agenda, he’d be the first to exercise his first-amendment right to let us know.

All this being said, there’s no doubt this news will hurt his campaign, which kind of makes me sad because with his campaign goes the whole end-the-war, bring-the-troops-home, end-the-drug-war, abolish-the-income-tax, control-spending, and actually-address-the-looming-fiscal-crisis stuff that I really enjoy.

There was a great interview on NPR with the reporter who wrote the New Republic article breaking this story. One of the points that he brought up that I thought was particularly important was what Paul’s apparent lack of oversight of these newsletters says about his working style.

Regardless of Paul’s own opinions, that he exercised so little oversight of something being done in his name for two decades doesn’t give me much faith in his professional abilities as an administrator of any sort, let alone a Presidential one.

Someone who riled up the GOP and the NeoCons finally got his comeuppance. Later, Ron. It’s too bad you were at best an absentee publisher some 15 – 20 years ago.

You unfortunately had the temarity to accept responsiblity for it many years ago, (strange political approach, no?) and now you’re being shown the door. Fringe candidates with interesting ideas and grassroots support, exit stage left.

Party line towers and Washington regulars, step right up. Let’s stay in Iraq, enforce the Patriot Act, bully the world, educate our youth poorly, and keep doing the same stuff we’ve been doing for generations.

I supported Ron Paul because he agrees with me about our current state of affairs. I hoped he could at least steer the debate in a different direction. I was heartbroken to learn that this stuff had been published under his name. I hope he never believed in this stuff.

There’s a number of things that irk me about Republican’s and Ron in specific. At the same time, I’ve never felt a sincerity about their beliefs as much as Ron has. I can find a number of things wrong with his beliefs and attitudes. Yet, I feel that he isn’t an image, but as an actual person with a series of actual beliefs. Of course, this itself might be a carefully calculated image, but I’m starting to buy it.

Also, another race tangent. He’s aligned himself with the “anti-illegal-immigration” position. In the past, the libertarian position has been for fewer borders or even “open borders”. Presently, there’s an emergent anti-immigrant, anti-human-rights, and anti-freedom strain of liberarianism; Ron Paul opposes birthright citizenship, increases in legal immigration, and supports the border wall (and presumably militarization of the border).

He doesn’t even deal with the paradox of enforcing laws against people working without authorization. That law hinges on an accurate Social Security card record, or some other kind of national ID database. You can’t enforce laws that hinge on the status of an individual, without having a record about the individual, and using the record to determine if someone can do something. Based on the records, you can do the following to facilitate enforcement of the law: create a public database of the status (online or in a book), or issue a certificate that is hard to counterfeit (like an ID card).

In the past, because it was hard to do either, such laws were not enforced. That is, some of them were not. The laws that specifically created a lower status for Black people or Asian people, who could be identified by their appearance, without a card or database, were enforced.

One of the points that he brought up that I thought was particularly important was what Paul’s apparent lack of oversight of these newsletters says about his working style.

Regardless of Paul’s own opinions, that he exercised so little oversight of something being done in his name for two decades doesn’t give me much faith in his professional abilities as an administrator of any sort, let alone a Presidential one.

ROn has said many times the his stance on immigration is an economic one, and that with an improved economic state and an end to the welfare state borders could be opened in a truly libertarian sense. It has nothing to do with race.

And this is the reason Ron Paul is my candidate and my only candidate. He is the only one who addresses the massive freaking elephant in the room which is economic policy. Pretty much all his views come from two places: a belief in individual freedom and ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY. But no one gives a shit about economic responsibility. We have candidates promising tax cuts, universal health care, keeping troops overseas, expanded government programs… but the fact is WE CAN’T AFFORD ANY OF IT. Our economic policies make no sense, and will be our downfall, and yet no one is talking about it. We get caught up on issues of racism, religious views, and other surface level nonsense when none of that will matter when our economy is bankrupted. I repeat, none of that shit will matter. Just like in your personal life, if you spend many times more money than you earn, no matter how noble or just that spending may be, eventually your lack of fiscal responsibility will catch up with you and your life will fall to ruins. We all talk about “sustainability” these days, but our economic policy is anything but, and we will simply NOT sustain if we remain on this path. I know you all are logical people, and this is just simple common sense. If Ron Paul can guarantee each American his/her individual rights as prescribed by the Constitution while addressing the bring fiscal responsibility back to the nation, there really is no other candidate for our future.

And please keep in mind that this is coming from someone who promotes and loves mass transportation, and if Ron Paul had his way he would likely cut federal transit funding (of course I’m sure it’s far down on his list of spending to cut). But the fact is if we can’t afford it we can’t have it.

I encourage you to watch the interview with David Walker, US Comptroller General (aka the government’s accountant), that I posted earlier (and will post here again) to understand the absurd financial situation this country is in. Keep in mind, virtually NO ONE disagrees with David Walker’s numbers.

We could afford mass transit if we didn’t spend so much money on the defense of oil wells. If we made mj a cash crop and taxed it. And, if we produced homemade rather than purchased everything from China.

My dream ticket would be Kucinich/Paul as they would balance each other out by their opposition. Obama/Edwards, next best.

Alex Jones is a nut, but the establishment Right *are* going after him because he’s diverging from the libertarian’s traditional role as the advocates for eliminating the minimum wage, total empowerment of property owners, cutting taxes, and occasional advocacy for immigrants. He puts the anti-war position in a package that’s palatable for the Right.

BTW, Camino, rail is one of the most heavily subsidized forms of transit, and it gets cut even by Democrats when the budgets don’t balance. There’s no hope for them under a libertarian regime. The standard libertarian position on transit is “jitneys”, aka “gypsy taxis”. I suppose the “green” version would be pedicabs and rickshaws. For the poor, there’s walking… or company owned buses to take people to work… from their company dormitories straight to the factory, office, or worksite.